The Spider Forest Stand-Off (2)
So a mage’s corpse could fetch money?
And other mages actually studied corpses?
“So how much does it bring on the Black Market?”
“Enough that we could retire and live easy for the rest of our lives.”
“No way!”
“Is that true? How much are we talking here?”
“I get it. I thought I was hearing things the first time, too. But after a while, it made sense. Have any of you ever seen a mage in person?”
“……”
The mercenaries, suddenly struck dumb, looked at one another.
“You’ve all been mercenaries long enough, haven’t you? And yet none of us has ever actually seen a mage. Not until a few days ago, anyway. And a mage out here hunting monsters alongside mercenaries? If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it either.”
“I’ve heard the rumors, more or less. Mages are usually kept under control at magic towers or academies, right? Just showing up in a place like this is strange enough.”
Everyone nodded as if that settled it.
“I was really shocked at first.”
“Exactly. A mage? As if we’d ever imagined running into one.”
“I’ve also heard the rumors that mages are all crazy. Apparently there are plenty who go mad just from reading a magic book.”
“Then maybe he went insane and turned into a criminal.”
“Right. I thought he was some mage who’d run away from a magic tower or academy. So I looked into it, and the magic towers are always posting warrants for escaped mages.”
It had been worth checking, the mercenary added.
“A mage on the run, huh.”
“Ah. So he hunted the spiders because he was short on money.”
“It’s too suspicious to dismiss as a coincidence, right? That’s why I called you all here. I could’ve gathered more, too, but then he started splitting the by-products….”
“Wait. Then why not hand him over to the magic tower and make sure he can’t come back to bite us? The bounty on a rogue mage must be pretty decent.”
“There’s always the chance he isn’t a runaway mage. No reason to take that risk. If we end up unable to sell the corpse at the Black Market, we’re the only ones who lose. To be blunt, the difference between the bounty and the Black Market payment is about this much.”
There was a sharp intake of breath.
That much? Really? voices rose in excited disbelief.
“Then we definitely have to sell him on the Black Market.”
“Don’t worry. Now that we’ve got this many of us together, killing him won’t be hard. So what if he’s a mage? He still dies if you slit his throat with a knife.”
“No need to even use a knife. One bolt from a crossbow and it’s over.”
“He walked straight into the forest of his own free will. Maybe mages aren’t that smart after all. No one’s around to see it, either. He’s basically begging us to kill him.”
“Hah! Do you really think a mage sees mercenaries like us as human? Still, we should watch our footing. As long as we keep him from using magic, he’s just another man.”
“Exactly. Magic might be scary, but it takes time. In the time it takes him to cast, I could swing my blade dozens of times.”
With the snickering laughter came a slow, writhing hunger for blood.
“So this is it, then. Retirement for real. When I go back to my hometown, I’m opening a shop first thing.”
“I’m going to an inn. I’ll roll around with the serving girls and live it up.”
“Dream on. The moment they see your face, they’ll all run.”
“What the hell? Honestly, am I not a handsome guy?”
Lawrence stopped listening any further.
There was no point. Nothing he heard would change what was coming.
Instead, he checked his equipment first.
After crossing in and out of the forest so often lately and running into goblins and Under Wolfs over and over, he had taken to keeping his weapons on him at all times.
A crossbow and a spear.
He had eleven quarrels left.
With nearly twenty mercenaries chasing him, even if he killed them all, nine would still survive.
He also had to account for missed shots.
There was no way he could recover quarrels on that kind of battlefield.
Monsters were different.
His opponents were human. Worse, they were battle-hardened mercenaries.
Compared with Lawrence, who had only just begun life as a mercenary, their experience would be in a completely different league.
He was wearing armor, too, in hopes of avoiding fatal wounds.
Unless he managed to hit exactly where he aimed.
If he missed, there would be no real way to stop them.
Magic had to be reserved as a trump card.
If he used it at all, it would have to be Shadow Spear, unleashed from a safe distance.
But this time his enemies weren’t as large as a Forest Spider.
Even accounting for their bigger builds, they were still ordinary people.
The smaller the target, the more carefully he had to aim.
And the longer he sustained the spell, the more the pain in his chest would swell.
At present, he could cast Shadow Spear at most three or four times.
Even that was only because he was forcing himself to keep the chest pain in check; beyond that, he was sure a headache would follow.
Once the headache began, it was over.
Never mind casting magic—once he could no longer run, he had no way to survive.
His chest still burned with anger at being looked down on for his magic, but his calmer thoughts whispered what he needed to do.
He mustn’t make the mistake of thinking otherwise.
Taking down the mercenaries was only one means to an end.
What mattered was surviving long enough to get out of the forest.
Charging in blindly was not the right choice.
His greatest advantage right now was that they hadn’t found him yet.
There was no need to fight them.
If possible, the best outcome would be to slip out of the forest without a clash at all.
Once he reached the village, there would be guards.
No matter how greedy the mercenaries were, they weren’t stupid enough to pull anything in front of soldiers.
Then again, they weren’t fools either.
It was obvious enough that even Lawrence could think of it, which meant the road to the village would surely be watched closely.
He had no choice.
He would have to go deeper in.
No matter what, they probably hadn’t reached the far side of the forest.
For now, that was the best option.
He needed to move while the sun was still up.
Once darkness fell, he might as well consider his time gone.
He had no way to keep moving through the forest. He had no torch, and the moment he used a spell like Fire, he would give away his position.
Now, while the mercenaries were still busy trading jokes, was his chance.
One step. Then another. He slipped away carefully.
Once he had gained some distance, he began to move faster.
Fortunately, the forest was vast.
With the massive trees and thick undergrowth blocking his view, he thought it would be hard for them to track him.
In fact, the monsters lurking somewhere in the woods were probably more dangerous than the mercenaries coming from behind.
Fighting always made noise.
Without magic, he would have to rely on his spear or crossbow, and unless he spotted the enemy first and dealt with them cleanly, any battle would turn into a miserable mess.
Then there was the cleanup.
Leaving a monster’s corpse behind would be proof that Lawrence had passed that way. But he had no time to hide the bodies right now.
No matter how hard he thought about it, no good answer came to him.
He advanced while keeping watch on everything around him.
Spear and crossbow stayed ready, within easy reach at any moment.
How long had he been walking?
The forest scenery kept repeating itself, as if he’d already passed the same places before, until his legs grew too heavy to keep moving.
Leaning back against a tree, Lawrence took out his waterskin.
He drank the lukewarm water and felt a little strength return to him.
The waterskin felt awfully light.
He might have to start rationing it from here on.
He covered his eyes with the back of his hand.
As the heat in his eyelids cooled, his head cleared a little.
How long had it been?
Were the mercenaries still chasing him?
Had he come far enough that he could finally relax?
His mind felt sluggish and spinning.
This was the first time in his life that someone had been hunting him for his life.
A weariness he had never known before was draining the strength from his body.
At least there weren’t many monsters in his path, which was something.
He had seen the occasional Under Wolf and goblin here and there, but by going around them he had avoided any major trouble so far.
Maybe it would be better to eat something.
He was so exhausted he couldn’t even tell whether he was hungry or not.
Still, he knew that eating something would give him strength.
This was a forest.
If he was lucky, maybe he could find fruit or something similar.
Just as Lawrence, clinging to a thin thread of hope, looked around him—
“…They’ve gone far.”
“Are you sure this is the right path? Unless it’s just my imagination, it feels like we’re heading deeper and deeper into the forest.”
“Don’t worry. I brought a professional tracker for this exact reason. Unless he vanishes into thin air, there’s no way he’s getting away.”
“The forest says: the trail continues. Remember Mera. A mage cannot escape. Just trust me and follow.”
“Well, that’s reassuring.”
His thoughts froze over.
This was no time to be thinking about food.
Without realizing it, the mercenaries had crept up right beside him.
Should he fight back before it was too late?
No. That was a reckless thought.
Hasty actions led to things that couldn’t be undone.
Besides, he couldn’t even tell how many of them were there.
If they were waiting with crossbows, ready for Lawrence to stumble out exhausted, then the moment he attacked he would become a hedgehog made of quarrels.
He couldn’t move rashly.
There was no next chance. This was hide-and-seek with his life on the line.
He forced himself calm again.
At this rate, even getting out the other side of the forest would mean nothing.
Worse, it would be dangerous. The moment he stepped onto open ground, he would become easy prey for the mercenaries.
Simply escaping would not solve anything.
If he was going to survive this crisis somehow…
It looked like he would have to take a certain risk.
He made his decision.
Lawrence turned back once more.
He headed toward the direction he had been deliberately avoiding.
The forest grew thicker.
The towering trees became harder and harder to measure, and the undergrowth had an almost sticky feel to it as it began to cling to his feet.
A darkness like mist veiled the path ahead.
The monsters he had seen now and then were gone all at once.
It was a silent forest, so still he could not even hear insects.
He knew he had entered a dangerous place.
And yet, even after taking this much risk, he could still feel the presence trailing behind him.
Were they really that skilled at tracking?
Or was Lawrence simply leaving too many traces behind?
He didn’t know.
He had never been taught how to walk through a forest without leaving signs behind.
Going deeper would be dangerous.
At this point, it would not be strange for a Forest Spider to appear at any moment.
He prepared for battle.
He searched for a place where he could intercept them.
Then, leaning against a tree, Lawrence sank down as if he were collapsing.
He had been walking so long that his legs had gone numb.
His stomach ached with a leaden, dragging pain.
The soles of his feet hurt so badly they had gone beyond simple soreness and straight into throbbing agony.
If he had to guess, he’d probably burst blisters several times already.
It hurt.
But not so much that he couldn’t bear it.
In fact, for keeping his nerves taut, this level of pain was almost useful.
He put the urge to whimper aside.
In contrast to his exhausted body, his focus had reached its peak.
Only a consciousness sharpened beyond necessity could keep track of the sound of breath itself.
It was time.
He had come this far, so the number of mercenaries must have dwindled already.
There would be no next time unless he survived this one.
He drank the rest of his water without sparing a drop.
It didn’t quench all the fire in his throat, but it restored enough strength for a fight.
The first strike was everything.
Since it required so much care in both casting and aiming, Shadow Spear could only be used in the opening ambush.
If he could eliminate at least three or four mercenaries, that would be ideal.
They didn’t even have to die.
It would be enough to leave them unable to fight.
“…This is dangerous. From here on out, it’s Spider Forest.”
“It’s fine. We haven’t reached the deepest part yet. And what kind of mage do you think he is? Even if he’s desperate, he wouldn’t have gone all the way to where Forest Spiders appear.”
“Agreed. Forest Spider traces here. Few.”
“Who knows? Maybe he’s desperate enough to drag us all down with him and die together.”
Lawrence checked the source of the voices.
He could see about eight mercenaries between the trees.
The undergrowth hid the rest, so he couldn’t be certain of the exact number, but even accounting for blind spots, it didn’t look like there were more than ten.
In the midst of bad luck, that was fortunate.
By the end of the chase, the twenty mercenaries had been cut in half.
That made Shadow Spear even more important.
The course of the battle would be decided by his first spell.
After confirming the mercenaries’ positions, Lawrence took up his place.
The spot where three great trees crossed like a triangle.
Even if he was discovered, he could change position in an instant.
The mist and undergrowth masked him well enough that he was hard to see.
He couldn’t hide perfectly, but he would at least be somewhat protected from crossbow fire.
As for close combat, there was nothing he could do about that.
He refused to die to some stray quarrel.
The first target he needed to take down was the man with his face almost pressed to the ground.
The man’s bronze-colored upper body was bare, and black tattoos covered him from head to toe.
His face wasn’t clearly visible.
But the dark shadows that showed now and then made it easy to guess that his face was covered in tattoos as well.
He was probably the tracker, reading Lawrence’s trail.
Even under the worst possible assumptions, if he could kill that one man, perhaps he could shake off the pursuit.
Kill him.
Kill a person.
Would this be his first murder?
Strangely enough, he didn’t feel as sentimental as he thought he might.
Lenard came to mind.
Thinking about it now, the cynical pilgrim had been right about everything.
When your own life was hanging in front of you, everything else became irrelevant.
The time spent hesitating was nothing more or less than a luxury.
A dry laugh escaped him.
Between all that taut tension, a sliver of space opened in his chest.
Steadying himself, Lawrence extended both hands forward.
“Shadow Spear.”
The world answered the boy’s will.
Shadows clinging to the great tree rose up.
As if responding to the caster’s desperate resolve, the shadow swelled larger than usual.
The process was instantaneous.
The dark mass that had been cast over the ground reshaped itself into the form of a spear.
Even holding it still so it wouldn’t fire at random made his chest twist.
It felt like the larger size had made the backlash stronger, too.
He couldn’t hold it for long.
This wasn’t a fight that would end in one shot.
He had to keep the future in mind and regulate his limits.
Still, that was fine.
The mercenaries still hadn’t noticed Lawrence.
No one could deny that this was the best chance he would get.
He had waited long enough.
Now it was time for them to pay the price for underestimating a mage.
At last, Lawrence finished aiming and hurled the Shadow Spear.
“…!? Duck!”
Who had shouted the warning?
By the time they saw the incoming Shadow Spear, it was already too late.
The boy’s anger-laden spear of shadow blew apart the mercenaries gathered there.
“A mage!”
The cry that followed was almost a scream, painted over with terror.